


Silver and Gold

by sunalso



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 19:51:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12991284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunalso/pseuds/sunalso
Summary: S2. Jenny and Giles together face the scariest thing to be found in Sunnydale over the winter break: a holiday staff party.Beta'd by Gort.Happy Holidays 2017!





	Silver and Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [J_for_jenny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_for_jenny/gifts).



> Happy Holidays J_for_jenny! I hope you like your prezzie and thank you for having me and Gort on your podcast! We had a blast and I wanted to give you a little something in return! (Thank you to QuinciWho too! I didn't pick up on if you have a preferred ship, but if you do, drop me a line and I will gladly do a fic for you as well!)

How do you measure its worth?

               -Burl Ives, “Silver and Gold”

 

“Gingerbread man?” Xander asked around a full mouth as he held a plate full of cookies.

Jenny winced at all the flying crumbs. “No, thanks, I’m good.”

“Does it have to be Christmas break?” Willow said from where she was sitting, hunched over a book, at the long table in the library. “It feels like forever until January. What if I forget something important between now and then?”

“I’m sure you’ll be okay, Willow.” Buffy, sitting on the table beside Willow, patted her shoulder. “I forget things from class the next day and I’m still fine.”

Willow made a horrified face.

Jenny leaned against the library’s counter. How did Giles put up with these three all the time? She’d been around them for three seconds and already wanted to flee.

Giles, suit jacket missing and shirt sleeves rolled up, came out of his office with a stack of books in his hands, which he dropped on the table beside Buffy. She frowned at him.

“I’d suggest you each take a volume or two and study over the holidays,” he said. “These are all demonologies and as the hellmouth attracts many kinds of evil it behooves us to be prepared for whatever may show up.”

Buffy scooted away from the pile of books. “Isn’t that why I have you?”

“I’m not always with you on patrol,” Giles said with a sigh. He massaged his temples.

Jenny did have to admire his perseverance, and it wasn’t that he was wrong, it was just that she knew he was going to fail. “At least take one and pretend you’ll look at it,” she said, gesturing at the books.

Giles looked grateful for the backup.  

Buffy’s shoulders slumped, but she pulled out the thinnest volume and stuck it in her bag. “Maybe I can ask Angel if he thinks any of the baddies in it are likely to show up.”

Jenny was certain she saw Giles’ eye twitch. “I’m not sure a vampire would be an expert on what other demons might be attracted to the hellmouth’s energies.”

Xander snorted. “She just wants to make out with him.”

Buffy blushed crimson.

Giles snatched his glasses off his face, rubbing hard at the lenses with a handkerchief.

Jenny smiled weakly. She never knew what to do about Buffy and her starry-eyed attraction to Angel. At least it seemed like a doomed thing. What did a centuries-old vampire and a green-as-grass sixteen-year-old have in common? It would end in tears, Buffy would hopefully learn a thing or two from having her heart broken, and Angel would have more sorrow to weigh him down. Things would be as they should.

“Here,” Willow said, holding a couple of the books out to Xander. “These ones have lots of pictures.” He set the plate of cookies down and took the books.

“Thanks, I think. I’m certain there was an insult there, but I’m going to judiciously ignore it because more pictures are better. And I’ll have time to look over these, it’ll give me an excuse to get out of the way of world war…well, they’re sort of past three. World war fifty-six? Or whatever number my parents are on. Hey, ten bucks says the Christmas tree doesn’t get lit on fire until after December 25th this year!”

Jenny winced at how fake Xander’s smile was. How did you help in a case like his? Giles looked as lost as her.

“Um, you and Willow can come to my house for Christmas Eve dinner if you want. I’m sure my mom won’t mind,” Buffy said, and Jenny relaxed. For being so young, sometimes they did figure things out.

“That’s the first night of Hanukkah this year.” Willow’s voice was soft as she took the rest of the books Giles had brought out and loaded them into her backpack. “I actually like celebrating with my family.” She sounded almost apologetic.

“That’s cool, Willow.” Buffy smiled and shrugged. Jenny smiled as well. It was good to see them supporting each other.

Xander grabbed another cookie. “No worries, Wills. Hey, can you sing the dreidel song for me?”

Willow nodded her head, hiding a shy smile behind her hair.

“Y’know,” Buffy said, scrunching up her nose. “Why’s it called Christmas break? When people celebrate Hanukkah and…other holidays during the same time?”

“Pagans observe Yule,” Jenny said. “But everyone is just used to calling it the Christmas season here. It takes time to change attitudes. Eventually, I imagine more people will realize there are many traditions that are celebrated during this dark time of the year.”

Xander perked up. “If these celebrations involve food, I’m all for them.”

“Speaking of food—” Jenny turned her head to look at Rupert, who now had his glasses back on. His eyes immediately darted to the far corner of the room. Had he been checking out her ass? It’s wasn’t like she hadn’t picked these jeans because they were a little tight over her behind. She pushed thoughts of vampires, Slayers, and demons away. Tonight was supposed to be fun. “I came to remind Mr. Giles about the staff Christmas party after the last bell this afternoon. If I remember correctly, you said you would ‘accompany’ me?”

Rupert sighed. “Er, yes, quite right. I did agree to go, didn’t I?”

The three kids giggled, but then the lunch bell rang and there was a general stampede towards the door.

Jenny crossed her arms as the library doors swung shut.

“There’s no being saved from this,” she told Rupert, doing her best to look stern.

“Am I a very terrible person to wish for another demon attack on the school?”

****

The computer lab wasn’t a winter wonderland by any means, but Jenny was proud of all the holiday touches she’d added for the last week of classes. Not that the students had noticed. They’d mostly looked bored, not paid much attention to her lessons, and failed the quiz, but what else was new?

After the last bell had rung and the classroom emptied, Jenny had locked the door and changed from her jeans into a green dress she’d picked up at a consignment shop. She was fairly certain it was at least fifty years old, but the style and dark color had called to her.

When you were a witch, you listened when an object told you it belonged to you.

She was less certain about the present she had for Rupert. The wrapped box, tucked in a drawer of her desk beside the disk of the translation program she was working on, also contained something less than new. Something that hinted at her own secret. Goddess, she wished she could tell him, but she’d been sworn to secrecy. Breaking that oath…she’d spent her entire life working to be in a position to help her family. Being ostracized from them was not something she was ready for.

Next summer she was making the trip home and she would formally ask her uncle for permission to tell Rupert, that’d be a lot harder for him to deny like he’d so flippantly done when she’d written him.

Jenny took a deep breath. Her heart was being tugged in two different directions and she hoped it wouldn’t break before she found a way to reconcile her calling and her feelings for Rupert. Surely he’d understand, being a Watcher, how sometimes what you did for the greater good meant you couldn’t do what you wanted?

There was a knock on the classroom door and Jenny opened it to find Rupert standing there, impeccably dressed in a tweed suit. She really should tell him that it was a look that suited him. His gaze swept down to her vintage shoes and back up.

“You’re stunning,” he said, offering his arm to her.

“You’re not so bad yourself. Very festive red tie.” She took his arm and he gently placed his other hand over hers.

“I thought I should at least attempt to show some holiday spirit.”

“It works.” With a laugh, she elbowed him, only he winced and sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, sorry! Damn it!”

She’d forgotten about the hole in his side, which she’d given him. Jenny tried to pull away, but Rupert wouldn’t let her. “Don’t fuss. It’s already healing. I just don’t bounce back quite as quickly as I once did.”

“I second that. Who said getting old had to start so early?”

Rupert laughed.

Jenny patted his arm. “If you’re very good, maybe later I can kiss it better?”

“Oh…I…”

His cheeks were as festively red as his tie as they walked into the staff lounge.

****

The party was dreadful.

Not that she had expected anything less.

One of Mrs. Kooling’s—the art teacher’s—pet hamsters had given up the ghost and she wouldn’t stop crying. She’d made a collage in Mr. Toodles’ honor and would sob her way through explaining it to anybody who stood within hearing distance.

Jenny got caught in her orbit, twice, and both times had to make appropriate dead-hamster sympathy noises.

One of the coaches was drinking from a flask every two minutes.

One of the English teachers wouldn’t stop talking about her sister’s divorce.

Mr. Snyder was berating everyone for their lackluster teaching performances during the first half of the year and kept saying how he wanted his only present to be people who actually did their jobs. Jenny was fairly convinced he was sharing the coach’s flask.

Everyone else just looked bored and were doing their best to keep up small talk. Jenny desperately wished for a tiny, hand-held computer she could have worked on to avoid being asked by one more person why such an attractive girl like her wasn’t married and if she wanted kids, shouldn’t she hurry up and get hitched?

So far she’d been able to fake smile and deflect the questions into conversations about the need for better funding for the computer lab. Nobody wanted to talk about that.

When things started winding down and Mrs. Kooling had left to mourn in private, Rupert, who’d been waylaid by one of the math teachers who’d spent thirty minutes complaining about all of his useless students, made his way to her side. He put a hand on the small of her back, which felt deliciously warm and large through the thin fabric of her dress, and guided her to stand in front of the Christmas tree that decorated the lounge.

“I do hope you enjoyed yourself,” he said with only the faintest hint of sarcasm.

“It was what I expected.” She leaned her shoulder against his. “Normal people being normal.”

“Very true, but as much as I did not want to attend, I find myself grateful.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, because I sometimes need a reminder that this is what I—what all of us—are fighting for. This is the world we’re saving. Regular people with regular lives that contain nothing worse than the extremely tragic passing of small, furry rodents.”

Jenny snorted. “You’re very right. I…no, you’re right. People being allowed to just be people is actually…it’s a wonderful way to look at it. Boring is a terrific thing to fight for.”

“Yes, well…” Rupert dug into the pocket of his suit jacket. “It not just them I fight for.” He pulled out a slim box wrapped in silver paper and handed it to her. “I hope I’m not being too forward, but I was stuck at the mall the other night with Buffy and this reminded me of you.”

Jenny thought her heart might burst. “Thank you.” She wiped at her eyes with one hand before slowly undoing the paper and opening the box. It was a delicate silver chain with two small charms dangling from it: a pentagram and a computer mouse.

“May I?” Rupert asked. She nodded and held out her wrist so he could wrap the bracelet around it.  When he was done, she held it up so she could admire how it looked.

“Thank you,” she said again, at a loss to adequately explain how it touched her that he’d picked out something that told the story of what he knew about her. Maybe, once she could tell him more, they could add other charms to it.

“You’re welcome.” His voice was low and warm.

“I have something for you as well, but it’s in my classroom. Should we go and get it?”

“By all means. Much more of this and I’m stealing the flask from Coach.”

Jenny laughed again. “We can share.”

****

The classroom was lit only by flickering strands of Christmas lights.

Jenny was hoping it made her look younger than her…mumble…years. It was occasionally hard to be surrounded by so many young people who were so young and managed to look thin and beautiful without any effort.

It also wasn’t fair that men tended to age into distinguishedness. Rupert was nowhere close to being a teenager, but the lines at the corner of his eyes only made him more handsome.

Right now he was entirely looking too delicious. He’d shed his suit jacket and loosened his tie and he looked much less worried than usual. A little holiday cheer was good for him.

She removed the box from her desk. “It’s kind of childish, but I liked it and hope you do too.” She handed over the present, the twinkling lights in the room shimmering on the gold wrapping paper.

He quickly ripped through the paper and opened the nondescript cardboard box to pull out a medium sized glass snow-globe. He held it up in front of his face. “A horse and wagon, with people dancing.” He gently shook it so the snow swirled up. “It’s amazingly detailed.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said. Hopefully, one day he’d figure out why she’d given him a snow globe with a somewhat stylized and not exactly accurate depiction of Romani making camp.

“Remarkable. And not at all childish. It’s a work of art.” He carefully set the snow globe on her desk and reached for her hand. “Thank you, Jenny. Do you know it’s provenance?”

“No, I picked it up in a second-hand shop.”

“Then I shall enjoy discerning its origins.”

Jenny closed her eyes. She wanted to tell him so badly. “Rupert…” she breathed.

“It is hardly the only work of art in this room.” He gathered her against him and she gasped. “Though I suppose the identity of whoever hung the mistletoe just so over this desk will remain a mystery.”

His lips were warm and soft on hers and she was helpless to do anything but melt against him. Rupert’s arms were around her and her hands were in his hair and her tongue in his mouth.

This…him…they were worth fighting for against all the darkness in the world, and she would hold him close until her last breath.

His lips left hers and he kissed along her jaw as he backed her up against her desk.

Jenny’s fingers went to the buttons of his shirt.

She had one more present to unwrap.


End file.
